On Our Own in Reykjavik

We slept in late today with no activity planned until the afternoon. We had booked an excursion to The Lava Tunnel.. We were picked up at the hotel by a transfer bus which took us to the main bus station where we got on a minibus. Out driver, Thor, gave us information about what we were seeing on our way.

We saw the steam from their largest steam generation plant and mining of the lava from tall hillsides. The lava mined is used in the making of concrete.

After about 45 minutes we were at the Lava Tunnel. We had a briefing and got our hard hats and walking sticks and off we went. There were areas of rocks to walk over as well as stairs and ramps. This tunnel was formed about 5,200 years ago. Our guide explained about the different colors in the rocks and the different forms in the walls. The lava river that formed this tunnel was probably 1200 degrees Celsius. Now inside the tunnel it is 4 degrees Celsius. It was cold in the tunnel and lots of water was dripping down on us. It takes about 40 years for lava to cool, so some of the recent eruptions in Iceland will not be cool until 2065 or later making the areas affected uninhabitable for a long time.

The tunnel was discovered about 120 years ago because of a “skylight” (a hole in the roof of the tunnel). The translation of the Icelandic name, Raufarhólshellir, means “cracky cave on a hill.” The tunnel walk was about 1/4 mile, with lights along the way. At the end, we stopped and our guide turned all the lights out and it was something to be in the total darkness and total quiet.

We were returned to the hotel to rest and freshen up. Our final stop for the day was dinner. About 10 years ago we had dinner in a restaurant in downtown Reykjavik and we had made a reservation to dine there this time. It was not a fancy restaurant but the food we remembered was great. I will report that the second time did not disappoint. The Arctic char dinner at Messinn was just as good as remembered.

Tomorrow we board Oceania Marina for the next part of our trip.